Climate control - Page 3

Ex-NISSAN · 09-11-2007, 03:46 AM

Tim
Looks like our two cars came off the production line at the same time! I am taking mine back to the dealer but am just finalising a list of the problems with the Climate control. Like you I have just put a thermometer in the car to see what the temp reduces to when set at say 19 degrees.
Do you suffer from my other problem, the manual buttons do not control the vents they should do, for example when I push the "defrost button,second from right" no air comes out he screen vents! instead it comes out the face ones, when I push the face vent button no air comes out any vent. The only button that appears to work as it should is the floor vent one.
Alarmin, in answer to your question to Tim, I get loads of water coming from the air con system (more than on previous cars) so I presume the compressor is working normally.
Happy cooling.

drzeus · 10-09-2007, 08:04 AM

OK .. here's the thing. We had a really hot summer here so the climate control was set around 25-26 with outside temps well over 30 (often over 37!) Didn't have too much trouble if you ignore the fact that my elbow was often rather chilled so the folks in the back were comfortable.

Last weekend tho we went up into the mountains and it was generally cooler anyway. In the evening it was a bit chilly (for us anyhow). With the temp outside at 21 and the inside having been left at 25 from the rather warm day ... we found we were being blown decidedly hot air. (It prob wasn't that hot but it wasn't pleasant.) Now with only 21 outside I am quite happy just to have the outside air rolling in without being warmed, cooled or anything. My question is ... how exactly do you achieve this? When I set the temp lower than outside on AUTO the AC came on, when I set it to higher, the air coming in got hotter - logical enough. So I flipped AUTO off and repeated the process. I got basically the same thing happening but without the AC light coming. How does that happen? So in order for me to get cool feeling air (I hate having even warm air flowing at me let alone hot - our bedroom even has no heating!) I still had to set the temp below that outside. How is this so? I mean, I understand it but I don't want to have to be keeping an eye on the temp so that I wind it down if it goes down outside. Is this the way it is going to be ... if I leave it permanently on 22-25, as soon as the outside temp is marginally lower than that I am going to get blown with warm stuff?
I thought that if it was OFF then I'd just get whatever air temp was outside coming through the vents ... but not so - it changes just as when AUTO is on

Up and down goes from hot to cold. I can't say what is flowing where mind you, just concentrating on what is blowing on me. When I first start up the car if climate was OFF then I get no air flowing through til I switch it on then off again; then, even though it is off I have air flowing

Having been used to just a plain old rotary warm/cold incoming/interior only fan I have been totally thrown! Is this normal behaviour for climate control? Is it in fact automatic at all times even if the AUTO light is off? Is it just that if the AUTO light is off then AC won't start up and running by itself (but heat will)? If I want the nice cool air that is already outside when it's cool must I set the temp at that outside? So confused! Anyone got a tip as to how I can best set the system so as to avoid being blown by warm stuff?

Ex-NISSAN · 10-11-2007, 10:17 AM

Hi drzeus, yes my A/C when set to auto does tend to work in a funny way (or not at all)! Also I have experienced the same as you when switching it off, say in the evening, and periodically air is allowed to come out of some of the vents.
In my opinion Auto climate control should adjust to the temp inside the vehicle (there is a sensor down below the left hand side of steering column) if A/C is set to 20 and inside of car is 25 then cool air should come out, and hot air if inside of car is below 20, in practice I think the air gradually goes from warm to hot.
A couple of us on here think their A/C reacts to the outside temp rather than the inside temp.
By the way I have never tested it at 37 degrees, or 30 degrees, or even much above 20 degrees outside temp!!

soggydog · 10-13-2007, 12:58 PM

Just a quick addition here.... lots of us (testers) are finding that the Climate control is, well, a weak point. You have to set the temp BELOW the actual required temp for the AC to kick in on a lot of production Ceeds. Bummer. And early reports from warmer countries state that it's not up to the job (as per an earlier post VW Audi BMW etc are WAY better)

tim_p · 10-13-2007, 03:52 PM

I took a digital thermometer out with me today and sat it in between the dials - outside was 16, climate was set to 16, temp was reading 23 (!) and kinda neutral air was coming out the vents slowly - car had been driven for around 15 mins. I guess neutral air is better than warm but still doesn't explain the temp of 23.
Been driving a Merc all week: set climate to 21 and leave it there. No need to take it anywhere near 16 FFS!

Ex-NISSAN · 10-14-2007, 10:36 AM

Soggydog, Can you make sure you let KIA know that it is not only you testers that think there is a problem but also ordinary users. The system seems to produce enough cold air ie the compressor works OK (set it on Lo and the car does cool down significantly) but the climate control does not distribute it as it should. It is almost as if the inside sensor is switching it down too early, ie the sensor may be poorly designed.
Hopefully if there are enough complaints then a mod may be produced.

soggydog · 10-14-2007, 01:38 PM

It's on the list !

tim_p · 10-14-2007, 02:03 PM

Another example. Out today (hot day, 18 degrees) Car had been parked and internal temp up to 27. Drove for 10 minutes, climate set to 16, outside temp = 18 degrees, got stuck in traffic and was driving for a further 10 minutes. In that 30 minutes temp inside car dropped from 27 to 26 degrees. There was cold (cool actually!) air coming from vents but although it was set to auto the air was coming out pretty slowly, certainly no real sound from fan. It was starting to get uncomfortable in there for me and two passengers.

Ex-NISSAN · 10-15-2007, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim_p

Another example. Out today (hot day, 18 degrees) Car had been parked and internal temp up to 27. Drove for 10 minutes, climate set to 16, outside temp = 18 degrees, got stuck in traffic and was driving for a further 10 minutes. In that 30 minutes temp inside car dropped from 27 to 26 degrees. There was cold (cool actually!) air coming from vents but although it was set to auto the air was coming out pretty slowly, certainly no real sound from fan. It was starting to get uncomfortable in there for me and two passengers.

Exactly how my car behaves.

tim_p · 10-15-2007, 12:06 PM

OK, report time (kinda!) - Car went in today and the climate issue was on the list. They tested it and agreed it was 3 degrees out (at least, in my opinion!!). They had no solution but were escalating it to Kia and would let me know what happens next. I wasn't actually expecting them to confirm a problem so I guess its a bit of a result - or at least the early stages of a result! To others out there with this issue, I can only suggest you try to document whats going on in your car, take temperature measurements and not the outside temp and selected temp on the climate, also try to make a note of how long it takes for the internal tempt to change (even if it's in the wrong direction!). The guy actually working on the car seemed genuinely interested and keen to help, the service desk guy had obviously had both a sense-of-humour and a charisma by-pass! - oh well if the technician is helpful then I'll try to deal with him.